Rodents of the North Urals in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene

Abstract

Data on fossil micromammals known at present from the North Urals sites allow us to trace the history of rodent communities beginning from the Middle Weichselian up to the present and to reveal some temporal and spatial patterns in their changes. Five fauna types were distinguished among the fossil local faunas known at present. Throughout the Late Pleistocene only tundra–steppe faunas existed in the North Urals, which differed in time and space mainly by relative abundances of three dominant species – Dicrostonyx gulielmi, Microtus gregalis and Lemmus sibiricus, and in some cases by species diversity. Early and Middle Holocene faunas reflect a transition from communities characteristic of tundra–steppe to forest and, in particular, taiga environments. Late Holocene faunas have a typical taiga character. Tendencies of temporal dynamics of faunas correlate with those revealed for other parts of the Urals. Differences between faunas of the different slopes (western and eastern) of the North Urals can be explained by the same factors which determine the different climate conditions there at present.